We often hear complaints about certain Criminal Minds episodes: one is not utilizing the bigger name guest stars and the other is to spend so much time with the UNSUB that the team seem like the under-utilized guest stars. We want both! Great utilization of the guest stars and lots of team time! Another complaint is when we know who the UNSUB is from the beginning versus discovering who they are gradually. There are arguments for both, and there is room for both, but the second scenario seems to be the preferred episode style.

We are a group of picky fans.

At first glance, or at least for the first half, I was afraid that this episode was going to be an UNSUB-centric, team barely there episode, with a gratuitous half-naked and extremely oiled-up Morgan to start the episode. Seriously, the man looked as if he had been dipped in a vat of oil instead of just having stepped out of the shower (note to whoever it was that oiled up Shemar, try a lighter type of oil – oh, and where can I apply for that job, phew *fans self*). Fortunately, the second half completely redeemed the episode for me.

Dean Cain played the UNSUB, a compulsive gambler, who at the beginning of the episode, we see killing a man in an Atlantic City casino office. As a ruse to avoid the police, he sits down at a slot machine and hits a jackpot. He hits it big at the casino after the kill and thereby we see his MO – when his luck starts to fade, he kills again and his luck gets better at the tables. We find out a little later that the MO had been established less violently even earlier: he had been fired from his job for punching out his boss and on his way to a job interview, buys a lottery ticket and wins $250. He blew off the interview and took his winnings to Atlantic City.

The BAU is called in after the first murder because the man who was killed was surrounded by eight, one dollar bills and an 8 playing card – highly ritualistic; and he was connected to organized crime.

We see a confrontation between the UNSUB and his wife at the casino when he is on his winning spree. She is tired of his gambling and tells him she wants a divorce and that she was going to her sister’s house.

The UNSUB’s luck goes sour and he kills the hooker who had been coming on to him when he was winning and then gave him the cold shoulder when he lost all his chips. Again, he littered eight, one-dollar bills and an 8 card around her body, thus causing the press to dub him the “Circle of Eight Killer”.

The UNSUB makes the connection about his luck getting better after he kills someone when he hears a news broadcast calling him the “Circle of Eight Killer”. He buys a gun and kills a gas station attendant, but it didn’t make his luck better. His friend asked him if he had gotten gas at the station the night before because if he did, it would seem that the Circle of Eight Killer was killing people who only knew him - he had known the man he killed and the hooker. Another light goes off in the UNSUB’s head. He has to know his victim to change his luck to good luck. The UNSUB wants to buy into a million dollar poker tournament, so he follows a man who he sees cashing in a boatload of chips to his hotel, murders him and steals the money, and buys his friend a gift, a super expensive watch he had been wanting. He gives it to his friend while they are walking through an alley and while his friend was putting on the watch, he kills him, pulls him out of the way and runs off after leaving $88 dollars on the body.

At this point, we are 30 minutes into the episode and I was thinking, man, this is going slow, the team has barely been seen, this is a terrible episode.

After the commercial break, things changed. The team finally showed up. The team is with the body of the friend and they find out there was also another murder of a hotel guest who had been robbed of $50,000, but $20,000 had been left with the body. They find out through the technical wizardry of Garcia that there is a poker tournament with a $50,000 buy-in starting that afternoon. THE LIGHT BULBS GO OFF.

The FBI wouldn’t front the money to buy-in to the tournament, so the team starts working on Rossi to fund the buy-in. He wants to go in himself, but Emily and Reid talk him into letting Reid go instead. Reid bragged that he was banned from casinos in Vegas and Laughlin (and somewhere else I couldn’t hear because he was talking so fast, Reid-style) because of his card counting ability and then goes on to start explaining a mathematical formula for winning at poker when Rossi says poker was much more than card counting. WIN! Reid being geeky and Rossi being Rossi.

At the tournament, Reid scans the room and figures out who the UNSUB is by his behavior and the fact that he had a magic eight ball keyring. He finagles himself a seat next to him and starts in on haggling the UNSUB, quoting facts and then staring him down. It was awesome! After Reid wins a hand, he reaches for the magic eight ball and the UNSUB freaks out! The UNSUB then accuses Reid of trying to get his chips. Reid signals the team while security is hauling him away. Hotch runs in and tells them Reid is an FBI agent. In the meantime, the UNSUB grabs a bunch of this chips and starts running out the back way. The team runs in to try to apprehend him, but he gets away leaving another dead body in his wake.

Through the combined wizardry of Prentiss, Rossi and Garcia, they figure out who the UNSUB is and where to find the UNSUB. He goes to find his wife at her sister’s house. He takes them hostage, the team converges at the house and Rossi confronts him. He finally lets the hostages go and then turns his gun under his chin and kills himself.

Cute moment on the plane: the team talks about their favorite gangster movies, and when JJ asks Rossi what his was, Rossi says he has had too much of the real thing to be a fan of mob movies playing on the fact that Joe Mantegna has been in a few gangster movies.

Question:why did they keep showing shots of Dean Cain’s red-rimmed eyes? To show how tired he was or his devolution?

The gratuitous oiled-up Morgan scene:Garcia is sleeping in bed, the phone rings: it is JJ calling Garcia into the BAU. Garcia is extremely hung over because she had a fight with Kevin and hit the wine. She hears the shower go off and then there is a knock on the front door. Kevin is at the door apologizing for storming off. Garcia had thought Kevin was in the shower, so she is confused, and of course hung over and had forgotten what had happened the night before. She shuts the door, turns around and there is Morgan in a towel, holding the phone saying they had been called into the BAU. Garcia is flustered, grabs her things (she had slept in her clothes) and opens the door, pushes Kevin from the door frame and leaves Morgan in her apartment without Kevin seeing that he was there. All during the episode Garcia was jumpy around Morgan, not giving him sass, etc., and after the case Morgan talks to her and it comes out that she called Morgan when she had been drinking and he came over, they watched a movie, ate popcorn and he slept on the couch, because he didn’t want her going out in her inebriated state. Sorry Garcia and Morgan shippers! Garcia and Morgan’s friendship is a wonderful thing and I personally would hate for them to ruin it by sleeping together. Garcia feels the same way because she thanked the gods for preserving the most precious of friendships!

All in all not a great episode, but a good one. I am glad the team finally showed up at the mid-point or I might have actually thought about changing the channel.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

"Criminal Minds" star Thomas Gibson told us about some newly acquired "nuts from India that have sap inside that washes your clothes" but he hasn't used them yet. He's happy to try things that are better for the planet, he noted. "It's nice that everybody's consciousness has been raised." He was glad to attend the event and support the charity while looking for items to bring home to his wife in ...to read more MotherNatureNetwork

A series of murders in San Francisco bearing the tell-tale signs of the infamous Zodiac Killer have the BAU wondering if the notorious serial killer has returned. Also, Reid ponders if he should be doing more with his genius abilities.

I was a little confused at first, what the music and the clothing. I was happy though, a minute later, when I realized it wasn’t a flashback.

The good: First, I have to say…Kitty Ears! Ah, Penelope, you are breath of fresh air amongst the many gruesome scenes and discussions on this show. Bonus: the glasses and lipstick match the ears!

Murder mysteries based on real-life killers make for interesting plots. Although you can quickly figure out where the details came from, just as Rossi and Morgan did, the copycat’s knowledge of the original crimes made it more real.

I am impressed with the slight twist there towards the end, where it could be either Harvey or Caleb as the killer, and their discussion is slightly creepy.

The bad: I wasn’t impressed with the casting for the unsub(s). They both seemed to scream stereotype to me. It didn’t take much to convince me they were the bad guys.

Also, while most of the Reid sub-plot flowed smoothly, the beginning scene at the seminar felt like a last minute add-on. The awkward public speaking thing with a large group was done in season 4 with in a classroom.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Q&A: Thomas Gibson of 'Criminal Minds'Veteran actor gives us the scoop on his character and what's in store on future episodes

By Minh NguyenSpecial to MSN TV

Thomas Gibson's roles as Dr. Daniel Nyland on "Chicago Hope," conservative attorney Greg Montgomery on "Dharma & Greg" and FBI supervisory agent Aaron Hotchner on "Criminal Minds" (for the past seven years) have kept him in front of viewers for nearly the last two decades. MSN TV had the chance to chat with the veteran actor about what's in store for his character and upcoming episodes of "Criminal Minds," and his love of Louis Armstrong.MSN TV:What is going on this season, and what can you tell us about future episodes of "Criminal Minds"?Thomas Gibson: There are all kinds of stuff. We've gotten our girls back, Paget (Brewster) and AJ (Cook) are back after a very strange season last year where they weren't with us for part or most of the season. It's been really nice to get everybody back together and start what is, unbelievably, a seventh season, with a new fusion of a feeling of a family reunion. That's been really good, and we're solving some of those grizzly crimes again. You know with the news in L.A. these past few days,...To Read More: msn.ENTERTAINMENT

THE HEAT IS ON IN ATLANTA WHEN THE BAU INVESTIGATES MURDERS OF WOMEN AND REALIZES THEY’RE LOOKING FOR MORE THAN ONE UNSUB, ON “CRIMINAL MINDS,” WEDNESDAY, FEB. 29
Guest Stars Include William Russ (“The Ex-List,” “Boy Meets World”) and Kathy Baker (“Picket Fences,” “Boston Legal”) as Parents Donald and Linda Collins; Merle Dandridge (“Sons of Anarchy”) as Agent Lynn Brooks, Who Assists the BAU in the Investigation; and Fiona Gubelmann (“Wilfred”) as Physical Therapist Erika Taylor

“A Family Affair” – When the BAU travels to Atlanta to investigate the murders of women, the clues lead them to look for an unsub who is not working alone, on CRIMINAL MINDS, Wednesday, Feb. 29 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Guest stars include William Russ (“The Ex-List,” “Boy Meets World”) and Kathy Baker (“Picket Fences,” “Boston Legal”) as parents Donald and Linda Collins; Merle Dandridge (“Sons of Anarchy”) as Agent Lynn Brooks, who assists the BAU in the investigation; and Fiona Gubelmann (“Wilfred”) as physical therapist Erika Taylor.

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WHO WE ARE

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Criminal Minds Round Table. When we were positing names for this blog, and Sir Bedivere suggested Criminal Minds Round Table, we knew immediately that was the perfect name for our blog.

It fit in so many ways.

Many fans, and Ed Bernero (Criminal Minds' former Showrunner and Executive Producer) himself, compare the show and its characters to The Arthurian Legend and the Knights of the Round Table. Mr. Bernero even went so far as to say that he knew that the stories had to be “Arthurian” to appeal to the most people. The team meets to brief cases at a round table, and there are many parallels between our BAU team and the Knights and other Arthurian characters.

In addition, a Round Table discussion is what we want to have here about any and all topics Criminal Minds-related. In a Round Table discussion, each participant has equal status and equal time to present views. And finally, since this is going to be a group effort amongst a group of Criminal Minds fans, we are going to take turns around the table, with each of us posting about the show, our favorite characters and our favorite actors on the show.